Is French hard to learn for English speakers?

Where does French sit on the FSI scale?

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which trains US diplomats, publishes how long its students usually need to reach a professional level of speaking and listening. Its students study 23 hours a week in class and 17 on their own, so the weeks are full-time weeks. French is in the easiest of its four groups.

So French takes FSI students about a third of the time of Japanese, and about five-sixths of the time of German. Within its own group it sits at the slower end, next to Spanish. For what 30 weeks means in daily hours, see how long it takes to learn French; for a side-by-side with its neighbour, read French vs Spanish.

What makes French easier than people expect?

You can read far more than you think

English borrowed a great many words from French, and it shows from the first chapter. In chapter 2 of the A1 sci-fi comedy Maman-Bot, where a household robot starts running a family's life in Lyon, one sentence has four words an English reader can guess cold:

Watch for false friends, though. In chapter 1 of The Montmartre Twins, Camille est libraire: she sells books. A library is a bibliothèque, and the heroine of The Letters of Montmartre works nights in one.

The past tenses wait until you're ready

French has several past tenses, but beginner text barely touches them. Était (was) and avait (had), the two commonest imparfait forms, appear once in the 24 free A1 chapters of the Contos French library, 11 times in the free A2 chapters and 191 times at B1. You meet the past when you already have the present.

What makes French hard for English speakers?

The spelling hides the sound

French spelling is regular, but it keeps letters nobody says. In the free A1 chapters of the Contos French library (names left out), about 32% of words end in s, t, d, x, z or p, and about 28% in an unpronounced e: roughly 6 words in 10 end in a silent letter. Est, pas, dit and et are the commonest. Ils parlent and il parle sound exactly the same. Our French pronunciation guide covers the rules, including liaison.

Gender, and an article that hides it

Every noun is masculine or feminine, and the words around it change to match. In the free chapters, feminine la appears 774 times and masculine le 644. Then there is l', used 376 times: before a vowel both articles shrink to l', so l'appartement (masculine) and l'enveloppe (feminine) look alike. Learn each noun with un or une to keep its gender.

Verbs come in many forms

English have has four forms: have, has, had, having. In the free chapters of the Contos library alone, French avoir turns up in 17: ai, as, a, avons, avez, ont, avais, avait, aviez, avaient, eu, eut, aura, aurais, aurait, ait and avoir itself. Several sound alike (ai, avais, avait), so on the page you have the advantage.

Everyday speech is faster and looser than the textbook

Written French keeps both halves of the negative, ne … pas, and the Contos stories do too: Il ne parle pas. In relaxed speech many people drop the ne. Learn the full form for reading and writing, and expect to hear shortcuts.

How can you make French easier on yourself?

1. Read before you worry about pronouncing. The page shows endings and genders that the ear misses. Start with an A1 story and let the spelling become familiar.
2. Save nouns with un or une. Une porte, un carnet: the article is the gender, and it is free to learn at the same time.
3. Learn the commonest forms first. Est, a and regarde do more work than any verb table. See your first 100 French words.
4. Add listening from day one. Reading builds the words; only listening trains your ear to hear them run together.
5. Keep sessions short and daily. A chapter a day beats a long weekend session; try our 15-minute reading routine.